By By Marianne Todd/The Meridian Star
Dec. 20, 2000
Two Lauderdale County men accused of the Oct. 3 shooting of postal carrier Brenda Rogers will be transported to a federal holding facility Thursday, after a federal grand jury returned indictments against them for capital murder.
Michael D. Sims and Thaddeus Brown are being held in the Kemper-Neshoba Regional Correctional Facility.
Kemper County Sheriff Sam Tisdale said he served both indictments on Tuesday.
No trial date has been set.
Sims was taken into custody Oct. 4 and charged a day later. Brown, his alleged accomplice, was charged several days later.
Sims was apprehended by local and federal authorities less than 24 hours after Rogers' body was discovered in a small house in south Kemper County that he and Brown allegedly burglarized.
Neighbors began a door-to-door search for the Bailey postal carrier after a woman reported she heard Rogers scream, then witnessed her abduction from her postal car on a narrow dirt road.
Authorities said they believe the suspects allegedly killed Rogers for the gas in her car after burglarizing a home in the area.
Charged as an accessory after the fact of murder is Lakendrick Brown, who was arrested three days after the murder. Brown, whose bail has been reduced from $50,000 to $25,000, remains in the Lauderdale County Detention Facility. He is accused of helping Sims and Thaddeus Brown dispose of evidence.
Federal officials say they are confident of a conviction. Evidence includes fingerprints taken at the crime scene and the probable murder weapon, a 9 mm handgun, which investigators found in some woods in Kemper County days after the murder occurred.
Marianne Todd is a staff writer for The Meridian Star. E-mail her at mtodd@themeridianstar.com.